“Canada has a reputation of being one of the curling powerhouses, but we definitely haven’t been in mixed doubles yet,” Carruthers said. “Going into Lethbridge, we have to earn our spot into the actual Olympics for Canada.

“We have lots of pressure on our backs, but we’re used to that from our men’s and women’s teams, so we kind of relish that.”

Mixed doubles games are eight ends instead of 10 and each team has six stones instead of eight.

The big wrinkle is one stone belonging to each team is positioned before the end â€” one a centre guard and the other on the back edge of the button â€” with both eligible to count towards scoring.

One curler delivers the first and last stones and the other throws the second, third and fourth rocks. They can swap positions from one end to the next and sweeping can be done by both or either team member.

Courtney and Carruthers have played a few events together, but are still on a learning curve in mixed doubles. They spent time practising strategy with Stoughton in Calgary this week.

“It forces me to use skills that I’ve never used before,” Courtney said. “It makes you feel really good at curling when you make good shots because there’s so much less help out there.

“If you make a draw to the button for the win, I never get to do that.”

Mixed doubles is running in conjunction with the world senior curling championship at the ATB Centre.

Six-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts winner and former world champion Colleen Jones of Halifax and Ottawa’s Bryan Cochrane will represent the host country in the seniors event.